The Western Word

This Week's Editorial

A GRAND OASIS IN THE VASTNESS OF SPACE
By Avi Davis

Perhaps it is an outworn cliché, but it still holds: everyone remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing at the moment. I was a 5th grade schoolchild in Melbourne, Australia, sitting in a tiny classroom with 20 other children as the voice, crinkled with static, rumbled from the television set and across the room. We sat transfixed knowing, without any real prompting from our teacher, that we were watching a major historical event, quite unlike any other we were likely to witness in our lifetime.

Neil Armstrong’s first step on the moon and his resonant words “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” still impresses me as a mark of extraordinary human daring and technological wonder. Perhaps it all seems rather commonplace now, but in the 1950s the idea that man would travel in space or would be able to place a foot on an extra-terrestrial surface seemed as remote as the idea as the ability to travel through time. But in the eight years that passed between Yuri Gagarin’s epochal orbit of the Earth in April, 1961 and the Apollo 11 moon mission of July, 1969, our entire perspective on what applied human intelligence coupled with unfettered determination could achieve, was greatly expanded. Suddenly we were aware that the cosmos was not some inky, impenetrable blackness that could not be understood, but a vast panorama of possibilities for exploration, study and adventure.

The conversation which followed on that wet winter’s day (remember this was Melbourne, Australia) revolved around not what we had just seen, but on the next step humanity would take in its exploration of space. A mission to Mars or Venus seemed inevitable and for the next two hours we debated with one another about the new civilizations that would soon be discovered and the possibilities for travel toward them.

Our generation was to be flatly disappointed in its expectations. In fact, despite several more lunar landings in the five yeas that followed, the NASA program, at least from a relatively uninformed adolescent perspective, seemed to slow down and that its greatest implied quest – of finding other forms of intelligent life in the universe, had become just a passing interest, not its fundamental mission. As the years passed, the space shuttle program, the unmanned explorations of Venus and Mars and the Mariner, Venera, Viking and Voyager expeditions sent to explore the outer reaches of our solar system, might have all been historic programs, yet they seemed to pale in comparison to the tactile act of placing a human foot on the surface of an extra- terrestrial sphere.

Why was this? Because, gazing for millennia into the vast night sky, we humans have longed to be reassured that we are not alone. The conviction that there must be other forms of complex life or intelligent beings in the universe has embedded itself in the human imagination and become an obsession. It has also led, sadly, to a dismissal of the notion of Earth’s uniqueness. From the time of the first modern astronomical discoveries in the 16th Century, most scientists have supposed that our solar system is rather ordinary and that the emergence of life somewhere other than Earth is almost certain given the vast size and age of the Universe. The discoveries of other planets, the realization that our sun is one of hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, which is, in itself, one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in a very large and very ancient universe, is indeed humbling and can leave us with an extreme sense of isolation. This has led many to cast the Earth as an inconsequential planet, lacking any unique purpose or place in the universe’s general order. This “Principle of Mediocrity,” popularized by the late Carl Sagan, has been adopted with gusto by many scientists today who also espouse, not unsurprisingly, a denial of the existence of a Creator or of a higher intelligence involved in the design of the Universe.

Yet since those formative years I have come to understand some important things about the Earth’s place in the universe that I could not have appreciated as a child. For instance, the mere presence of other planets and Earth’s position in the inner solar system reduces the number of asteroids and comets that could likely hit earth, giving us a level of safety not enjoyed by planets in the outer solar system.. Earth has a transparent atmosphere that provides a platform to study and explore the universe, an ability that would be unknown to most other planets that have gaseous, opaque atmospheres; that its position in the Milky Way puts it at the greatest of advantages for the development of life – not too close to the sun which would make it too hot and not too distant, which would make it uncompromisingly cold; that the conditions for the existence of complex life are exceedingly rare and that the probability of all those conditions coalescing at the same time and place is infinitely improbable; that carbon and water are the two most important ingredients necessary for the creation of life and the fact that they cannot be detected on any other planet in the combinations necessary for life is extremely perplexing.

Today it is possible to look up at the night sky, possessed of the knowledge of both the immensity of the cosmos and the incomprehensible distances across which it stretches - and feel crushed by our seeming insignificance.

But isn’t there another way to look at this existential dilemma?

Could it be that the universe came into existence not as a random accident but for both the Earth’s and humanity’s benefit? Is there perhaps a purpose and order to the universe that we have been actually programmed to discover? Jim Lovell, aboard Apollo 8, the first manned mission to orbit the moon, sensed this. Gazing out the window of his spacecraft and watching the Earth “rise” above the Moon’s horizon, he exclaimed: “the Earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space!”

The idea of an oasis, feeding and watering the universe, is a profound understanding of life that not only gives us confidence in exploring space but also in a sense of purpose that the current proponents of the Principle of Mediocrity can neither fathom nor appreciate. If the universe is truly as dead and barren as the surface of the Moon, have we, in fact, been created in order to seed it with life?

As a boy I could not imagine that forty years after Neil Armstrong’s famous walk, we would be no closer to the discovery of intelligent life in the cosmos than we had been in 1969. But science itself, coupled with the ingenuity of the human mind, may have provided us with something far richer and more significant than any such discovery could afford: the overpowering acceptance of our uniqueness and purpose. And it this realization which has provided me with a deep appreciation of this tiny blue dot in the “big vastness of space” and makes me feel, not alone, but rather excited to be alive.

Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ blog
Avi Davis is the president of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com

The Mullahs’ Washington Mouthpiece?
by Robert Spencer (more by this author)

“Throughout the recent crisis,” the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) announced last week, “NIAC has been in contact with the White House almost daily to convey the views of our community, and policymakers have been listening.” It “strongly condemned the crackdown” in Iran “and called for new elections as the best way to end the violence.” It has also called upon the mullahs to “immediately release opposition figures, human rights defenders, and all other persons arrested for contesting the election results,” as well as “immediately halt state-sanctioned violence against the Iranian people.” This is all to the good, especially because, as the NIAC itself puts it, “since its inception in 2002, NIAC has grown to become the largest Iranian-American grassroots organization in the country, with supporters in all 50 states.” That the largest Iranian-American advocacy group in the country would stand against the Iranian regime’s repression of the Iranian demonstrations is welcome; however, for all its apparent advocacy of freedom for Iranians, the NIAC has consistently opposed the tough measures that would truly aid genuine fighters for freedom in Iran -- and has also opposed the steps that the United States and the West must take to defend themselves against the increasingly bellicose and brutal Islamic Republic. (Humanevents)

Dr. Gary Tobin, Influential Scholar and Jewish Leader, Dies
at Age 59
BusinessWire - Dr. Gary A. Tobin, founder and president of the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research (IJCR), passed away on July 6, 2009. Dr. Tobin, one of the foremost thinkers in Jewish life, spent the first 24 years of his professional career in academia at Washington University in St. Louis and as the director of Brandeis University's Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. In a risky and courageous move, words often used to describe his work, Dr. Tobin resigned a tenured position and established IJCR, a major force in the study of the contemporary Jewish community. An academic by trade, Dr. Tobin was an entrepreneur and the success of IJCR is a testament to his creativity and leadership. As president of IJCR, Dr. Tobin identified three primary areas of research and action that he recognized as most important to the health and future of the Jewish people. These included the study of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism, the study of Jewish philanthropy, and the growth of the Jewish people. In all three areas, Dr. Tobin's highly innovative research initiatives have created major change in the Jewish community and beyond. (Forbes)

I've just seen hell on earth: Four years after 7/7, a never before seen picture of the horror that confronted police on the Tube ripped apart by terrorists- SAM GREENHILL
Inching through debris and choking heat, police forensic officers comb the wreckage of one of the 7/7 tube trains in this never-before-seen picture. Hunting for particles of evidence, they toiled in searing temperatures in the Underground carriages where suicide bomber Jermaine Lindsay blew up 26 innocent people four years ago yesterday. The harrowing task took days of almost superhuman concentration to complete. Now, for the first time, their hellish mission can be glimpsed in this exclusive picture obtained by the Daily Mail. We publish it the day after a memorial to the 52 innocent victims of the bombings - the worst attack in peacetime history - was unveiled by Prince Charles. At 8.50am on July 7, 2005, bombs in the rucksacks carried by Mohammed Sadique Khan, 30, Shehzad Tanweer, 22, and Jermaine Lindsay exploded on packed trains at Edgware Road, Aldgate and King's Cross. An hour later, Hasib Hussain, 18, detonated his bomb aboard the number 30 bus in Tavistock Square, killing himself and 13 others. Besides the 52 who died in total, hundreds were injured. Despite the country's biggest anti-terror operation, a number of arrests and two trials, no one has ever been convicted. The extraordinary image above was captured by an official police photographer a few days after the atrocity. No bodies or remains are shown. But the devastation wrought is all too clear. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Britain has 85 sharia courts: The astonishing spread of the Islamic justice behind closed doors-Steve Doughty
At least 85 Islamic sharia courts are operating in Britain, a study claimed yesterday.
The astonishing figure is 17 times higher than previously accepted. The tribunals, working mainly from mosques, settle financial and family disputes according to religious principles. They lay down judgments which can be given full legal status if approved in national law courts. However, they operate behind doors that are closed to independent observers and their decisions are likely to be unfair to women and backed by intimidation, a report by independent think-tank Civitas said. Commentators on the influence of sharia law often count only the five courts in London, Manchester, Bradford, Birmingham and Nuneaton that are run by the Muslim Arbitration Tribunal, a body whose rulings are enforced through the state courts under the 1996 Arbitration Act. But the study by academic and Islamic specialist Denis MacEoin estimates there are at least 85 working tribunals. The spread of sharia law has become increasingly controversial since its role was backed last year by Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams and Lord Phillips, the Lord Chief Justice who stepped down last October. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Canada launches interest free prepaid cards for Muslims
According to the recent report of the Credit Union Times UM Financial Inc., Canada-based company has announced the launch of the prepaid cards which were developed by their firm and MasterCard especially for Muslims. The difference of those prepaid cards from the ordinary ones is that they are free from interests and it is known that Islam prohibits paying or earning of the interest. With the launch of the new card many Muslims will be able to use fully the comfort and convenience of the contactless payments offered by MasterCard without any fear to violate the laws of their religion. Omar Kalair, CEO of UM Financial Group has commented on the launch of the new cards: “Canadians will now be able to adopt the responsible, interest-free lifestyle UM Financial promotes, by living within their means and not ever having to worry about high credit card interest rates while enjoying the convenience and security offered by MasterCard. With credit markets tightening, the majority of new credit card applications are denied.” (Ecommercejournal)

"Mainstream" Islamist Convention Features Hate Speech and Hezbollah Defense-IPT News
A top aide to President Barack Obama provided a keynote address at last weekend's 46th Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) national convention, a gathering that attracted thousands of people and also featured anti-Semitic, homophobic rhetoric and defense of the terrorist group Hezbollah. In her remarks, Senior Advisor for Public Engagement and International Affairs Valerie Jarrett noted she was the first White House official to address ISNA. She spoke in general terms about interfaith dialogue and cooperation. She praised her hosts for "the diversity of American organizations, and ideas that are represented and will be debated" at the convention. And she openly invited ISNA President Ingrid Mattson to work on the White House Council on Women and Girls that Jarrett leads. During her 15-minute remarks Friday, Jarrett briefly echoed the challenge her boss issued in Cairo last month about the changes needed to bring peace between Palestinians and Israelis. "Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and it does not succeed," Obama said in his speech. (IPT)

Persistent Myths in Feminist Scholarship Christina Hoff Sommers
(This article originally appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education)
"Harder to kill than a vampire." That is what the sociologist Joel Best calls a bad statistic. But, as I have discovered over the years, among false statistics the hardest of all to slay are those promoted by feminist professors. Consider what happened recently when I sent an e-mail message to the Berkeley law professor Nancy K. D. Lemon pointing out that the highly praised textbook that she edited, Domestic Violence Law (second edition, Thomson/West, 2005), contained errors. Her reply began:
"I appreciate and share your concern for veracity in all of our scholarship. However, I would expect a colleague who is genuinely concerned about such matters to contact me directly and give me a chance to respond before launching a public attack on me and my work, and then contacting me after the fact."
I confess: I had indeed publicly criticized Lemon's book, in campus lectures and in a post on FeministLawProfessors.com. I had always thought that that was the usual practice of intellectual argument. Disagreement is aired, error corrected, truth affirmed. Indeed, I was moved to write to her because of the deep consternation of law students who had attended my lectures: If authoritative textbooks contain errors, how are students to know whether they are being educated or indoctrinated? Lemon's book has been in law-school classrooms for years. (AEI)

COLUMBIA TENURES AN ISRAEL-BASHER-JACOB GERSHMAN
JOSEPH Massad's scholarly contribution during his decade as a faculty member of Columbia University's Middle East Studies Department may be summed up as follows: Israel is racist, and homosexuality is an insidious Western invention. Yet that was enough for Columbia, which officially -- if quietly -- awarded Massad tenure earlier this month. Columbia's process for reviewing tenure candidates is as rigorous as any Ivy League school's. Ordinarily, an academic of Massad's caliber would be bounced from Morningside Heights. And in fact, the system did work -- it denied Massad tenure two years ago.But now the school's academic standards have succumbed to ideological tensions and campus politics -- in what appears to be a remarkable manipulation of the tenure process and a breach of fiduciary trust. First, a little background on Massad. A Christian secularist of Palestinian-Arab descent, Massad has dedicated his academic career primarily to encouraging the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state. Criticism of Israel is far from unusual in his field, but Massad goes much further, taking arguments to bizarre ends. "The ultimate achievement of Israel," he writes, is "the transformation of the Jew into the anti-Semite, and the Palestinian into the Jew." In a book, he rails against the "Zionist theft of Palestinian Arab food (e.g., hummus, falafel)." (Nypost)

MEDIA BIAS

"Israel as Brutal as Iran"- HonestReporting.com
The Huffington Post's Max Blumenthal equates Israel with Neda's murderers.
Writing on the Huffington Post, Max Blumenthal, in a posting disingenuously titled "Neda in Palestine, Sentenced to Die Alone", refers to the cold-blooded murder of the Iranian woman Neda Agha-Soltan by Iranian security forces: When the mainstream American press chose to broadcast the graphic video -- as moving as the footage is, it is difficult to watch -- it made a commendable decision that nonetheless highlighted its hypocritical attitude towards Palestinians who resist Israeli occupation on a daily basis, and who often meet the same fate as Neda. Every week, in the Palestinian cities of Bi'lin and Ni'ilin local residents demonstrate beside international and Israeli solidarity activists for their basic human rights. ...When the demonstrators mobilize non-violently to stop the wall's construction -- to demand that the rule of law be honored -- the Israeli army has responded with massive force, killing, maiming, and brutalizing them on a consistent basis. Any comparison between the actions of Iran and Israel is not only spurious but downright despicable and seeks to reduce the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to simplistic black and white arguments. (Frontpagemagazine)

Iran Linked to International Terror; Media Snoozes-Ryan Mauro
Ever since the failure to find WMDs in Iraq, the American public and the media have demanded a nearly unreachable standard of proof before indicting a foreign government. When someone calls Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, proof that they are “linked” to al-Qaeda is demanded. Once al-Qaeda’s [1] refuge in Iran is offered as a counterpoint, proof that the regime knows of their presence and that the group isn’t merely working with “rogue elements” of the government, but the government as a whole, is required. Then, inevitably, the topic is diverted to Afghanistan and Pakistan, arguing that whatever base of support the group has in Iran pales in comparison to those theaters, and besides, the Shiite Iranian government would never want to risk Western retaliation by being so dumb as to support its Sunni arch-nemesis al-Qaeda! In the world of intelligence, it is extremely rare to come by the “smoking gun” now commonly requested. Luckily, several such smoking guns have emerged, but now we encounter a new problem — the fact that the media won’t report on them. How many of you have heard of the case of [2] Mohammad al-Oufi, the former commander of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who turned himself in to the Saudi authorities? (Pajamasmedia)

A British Military Expert Tells Truth To Prejudice-Melanie Phillips
During Israel’s Operation Cast Lead in Gaza at the turn of the year, when it was being demonised daily for its ‘disproportionate’ response to Gaza’s rocket attacks and accused (falsely) of recklessly or wilfully killing huge numbers of Palestinian civilians, particularly children, the BBC conducted an interview which shone out like a diamond on a dunghill in those dark and bigoted days. It was with Colonel Richard Kemp, formerly both commander of British forces in Afghanistan and the intelligence co-ordinator for the British government. In that interview, Col Kemp disconcerted the BBC’s boilerplate group-thinking presenter by stating that. I don’t think there’s ever been a time in the history of warfare when any army has made more efforts to reduce civilian casualties and deaths of innocent people than the IDF is doing today in Gaza. Now Col Kemp has amplified his remarks in a speech at a conference in Israel. It is worth watching or reading this remarkable speech in full -- because he says things that are as well-informed, obvious and decent as they are rare and poorly understood in the society that he has spent his life defending. He points out, for example, that Britain, America and Israel are up against the same type of enemy which operates under a new and very different set of rules: (Spectator.co.uk)

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Victory for Free Speech-Jamie Glazov
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Joe Kaufman, the Chairman of Americans Against Hate and the founder of CAIR Watch. FP: Joe Kaufman, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
The Texas Court of Appeals has just dismissed the case that was brought against you. Congratulations.
Tell us what this case was about.
Kaufman: Yes, it was an important victory, for both the War on Terrorism and Freedom of Speech. Thank you for allowing me this forum to speak about it.
Seven radical Muslim organizations, including the Muslim American Society (MAS) and three Islamic centers owned by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), filed a lawsuit against me for the simple reason that they wanted to punish me financially for writing about the terrorist ties of their friends. They claimed that I wrote an article which libeled them. Yet not one of the organizations suing me was mentioned in the piece. They filed a restraining order against me, claiming that I was a threat to them, but I have never threatened anyone. With regard to this case, it was only I that received a threat. The case against me was frivolous the moment it was filed, and thankfully that’s how the court found it, albeit a year and a half and nearly $100,000 later. (Frontpagemagazine)

Maine Fines Group for ‘Inflammatory Anti-Muslim Message’-Patrick Poole
An organization in the national spotlight recently for producing a documentary identifying several dozen potential terrorist training compounds in the U.S. has offended the sensibilities of Maine bureaucrats, who have fined the organization $4,000, alleging among other things that the group sent out mailings containing an “inflammatory anti-Muslim message.” The group in question, the Christian Action Network (CAN), received notice of the fines and the fundraising ban in a May 6 letter from Elaine Thibodeau of the State of Maine’s [1] Department of Professional and Financial Regulation. Enclosed in the letter was a prepared consent agreement for CAN to sign agreeing to all of the state’s allegations, waiving all rights to appeal, and agreeing to pay the $4,000 fine. As part of the consent agreement, CAN is required to agree to all of the state’s allegations, including their assertion that their mailing amounted to hate speech. “These bogus charges and fines the State of Maine has imposed are nothing but an attempt to stifle our free speech and silence our organization from speaking out about the steady creep of radical Islam in America,” CAN president Martin Mawyer told Pajamas Media. “We fully intend to appeal the state’s penalties because if they successfully silence us here, we will quickly find that we won’t be able to speak out anywhere.” (Pajamasmedia)

International Journalists Union Expels Israel- Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The International Federation of Journalists has expelled the Israeli branch after refusing to allow it to pay the same reduced amount of dues levied on neighboring countries, such as Jordan. Chaim Shibi, an Israeli branch official and veteran Israeli journalist, charged that the action by the international body is the culmination of a long-standing anti-Israeli bias. The liberal-leaning New York Jewish Forward noted that the expulsion, approved in an unanimous vote by the international union’s executive committee, “raised the specter of another effort by international unions to boycott Israel for political reasons.” The Federation claims the expulsion is based on Israel’s failure to pay its dues. It argues that its decision has nothing to do with politics or previous Federation charges that Israeli media sacrifices its independence by toeing the line regarding government policies. “We write against the Prime Minister,” unlike in most Arab countries, Shibi told Israel National News. “We are proud of our journalism in Israel and are not dependent on the government. We are the freest of all the media and we are the ones that the Federation selects to expel?" (INN)

Israel on Trial- Alan M. Dershowitz
Just as Spain’s National Court decided to shelve a phony war crime investigation of a 2002 Israeli air strike in Gaza, a group of lawyers and military experts assigned by the United Nations Human Rights Council continued its phony investigation of “the grave violations of human rights in the occupied Palestinian Territory, particularly due to the recent Israeli military attacks against the occupied Gaza Strip.” The UN Human Rights Council is a scandal. It’s a successor to the defunct UN Human Rights Commission. Both organizations have a long history of singling out Israel for condemnation and of ignoring real human rights abusers by the world’s worst offenders, several of which dominate the Human Rights Council and it predecessor. As Hudson Institute scholar Anne Bayefsky recently noted: “The Council has adopted more resolutions and decisions condemning Israel than all the other 191 U.N. member states combined…. The more time the Council spends demonizing Israel , the less likely it becomes that it will ever get around to condemning genocide in Sudan , female slavery in Saudi Arabia , or torture in Egypt .” The very mandate that authorized the Gaza investigation reveals its bias against Israel . The council has already concluded, without any pretense an investigation, that Israel is guilty of “grave violations of human rights…due to its…military attacks.” (Frontpagemagazine)

York conference on Israel met by protests-Sheri Shefa
TORONTO — Last week’s three-day York University-sponsored conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was met with three days of protests from concerned members of the Jewish community who feared the event would promote an anti-Israel agenda. According to UJA Federation of Greater Toronto and Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy (CIJA), when the latter organization assigned three people to attend Israel-Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and paths to Peace, their fears were confirmed.
“The conference devoted virtually no time to suggestions about an invigorated peace process and concentrated instead on Israel as a military machine determined to dominate the Palestinians,” the organizations said in a joint statement. “There was no discussion of terrorism or Israel’s security needs and there were no speakers who presented an Israeli centre-left or centre-right perspective. The assumption that Zionism and Israeli society are based on violence and racism predominated. “At one panel discussion, ‘Zionists’ were blamed as the cause of domestic violence perpetrated by Palestinian men against Palestinian women. At another, some participants questioned the sanity and integrity of an Israeli presenter. Speakers who defended Zionism were often jeered and heckled and virtually all of the publicly available material was anti-Israel.” (Cjnews)

European funding for the narrative war-GERALD M. STEINBERG
European efforts to play a major role in Arab-Israeli peace discussions have again been overshadowed, this time by US President Barack Obama's initiative. To raise Europe's visibility, the rate of official visits has increased, and a number of academic conferences on Europe's role are taking place. For example, yesterday the Hebrew University began a three-day conference with the ambitious headline "Strengthening the Forces of Moderation in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Role of the European Union After the Gaza War." For diplomats and policy-makers, a "frank and honest exchange of views" on the problematic European track record in academic settings could be very helpful in correcting decades of misjudgments. For example, during the Oslo process, the European Union and its member states were convinced that Yasser Arafat was a "force of moderation," providing him and his corrupt Fatah cronies with suitcases of money, justified as necessary to "grease the wheels" of the peace process and Palestinian state building. Instead, the cash went to foreign bank accounts and terror. In Europe, there have been very few independent analyses of these and other diplomatic and policy failures. Fearing embarrassment and worse, officials rejected calls for an independent investigation, until the European Parliament forced the European Commission to hold an inquiry (known as the OLAF report). But years later, this report remains top secret, meaning that few if any lessons were apparently learned. (Jpost)

TERRORISM, security and policy

Revealed: The chilling words of the Mumbai killers recorded during their murder spree-Dan Reed
(This article appeared in the Daily Mail, but has since been taken down. The full article can be accessed at this link)
This is Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab, caught on film as he unleashed a devastating and indiscriminate attack in Mumbai that left 166 people dead. But this picture is not the most dramatic record of that day. During the raid, the Indian intelligence services intercepted mobile phone calls between Kasab, his terrorist comrades and a mysterious handler hundreds of miles away, who issued commands to shoot civilians without mercy. These shocking tapes reveal the sinister mind control used to turn young men into killing machines - and the casual, off-hand brutality of the men who masterminded the massacre
Do you want them to keep the hostages or kill them?' asks Brother Wasi of someone else in the control room. The person replies with a casual grunt, barely audible through the background babble of the news channels playing on a nearby television. At the other end of the line, 500 miles away, Akasha, a 25-year-old Pakistani, is squatting on the floor inside a besieged building in the centre of Mumbai with a murdered rabbi's mobile phone in one hand and a Kalashnikov in the other. He knows with complete certainty that this will be his last night on Earth. For his mission to be a success, he must be killed. The two women hostages are on a bed nearby, trussed up and blindfolded. Another gunman, Umer, is dozing.Now Wasi comes back on the phone. His manner is warm and paternal - the kind of calm, commanding voice you instinctively trust.
Wasi: 'Listen up...'
Akasha: 'Yes sir.'
Akasha speaks in a gentle, dopey murmur. He sounds exhausted.
Wasi: 'Just shoot them now. Get rid of them. Because you could come under fire at any time and you'll only end up leaving them behind.'
Akasha: 'Everything's quiet here for now.'
Wasi: 'Shoot them in the back of the head.' (Dailymail.co.uk)

Terrorism and Tobacco--How Cigarette Smuggling Finances Jihad and Insurgency Worldwide-Kate Willson
For centuries, blue-turbaned nomadic Tuareg tribesmen have led caravans of camels across the expanses of the Sahara. Laden with millet and cloth from Africa’s West Coast, the caravans traveled unmarked paths to trade for salt and dates in Timbuktu, across the sand plains of Niger, and into the mountain oasis of the Algerian south. Smugglers take the same routes today — driving SUVs along paved roads or with guidance from the Tuareg and satellite phones — to move weapons, drugs, and, increasingly, humans — through the Sahara for transport across the Mediterranean Sea. The paths are no longer known as the Salt Roads of the Tuareg, but as the “Marlboro Connection,” named after the most lucrative contraband along this 2,000-mile corridor. Among those who control this underground trade is al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an Algeria-based terrorist organization widely believed to have been backed by Osama Bin Laden. Descended from the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (known by its French acronym, GSPC) the group has hundreds of members and is blamed for a bloody campaign of bombings, murders, and kidnappings across North Africa and Europe. The lead smuggler, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, 37, is blamed for the 2003 kidnappings of 32 European tourists and the 2006 murder of 13 Algerian customs officials. “They are a significant threat,” says Lorenzo Vidino, author of Al Qaeda in Europe. “Of all Islamic terrorist groups, they have the most extensive and sophisticated network in Europe… And among their activities, smuggling is particularly important.” (Thecuttingedgenews)

Power of the Poppy-KATHY GANNON
isn’t just the Taliban that benefits from Afghanistan’s drug trade
In Afghanistan, opium has bankrolled the good, the bad and the ugly. It has often been difficult to tell them apart. First there was the “good”: In the 1980s, opium-using and opium-funded holy warriors, backed by the U.S., fought invading Russians in the last Cold War battle. Even the CIA was said to be involved in the drug trade then, using poppies (from which opium is made) to finance the insurgency and, it was rumored, to get Russian soldiers hooked on drugs. Then came the “bad”: In 1992, the holy warriors came to power when the Russians left Afghanistan. They grew poppies at a phenomenal rate and used the profits to underwrite their internecine killing, support terrorist training camps and fatten their overseas bank accounts. In 1996, they were thrown out by the “ugly”—the Taliban. In the end, the Taliban’s core membership was made up of some of the same holy warriors. Yet when the Taliban was ousted, it had wiped out opium production—perhaps to drive prices up and make a windfall, perhaps to win United Nations approval. Today, the good, the bad and the ugly all flourish in Afghanistan—sometimes together, sometimes apart. But it’s not clear who is benefiting most from the drug trade. Is it the Taliban and al Qaeda or members of Afghanistan’s U.S.-backed government? Statistics vary wildly, but the U.N. estimates that drugs bring in upward of $300 million annually to the Taliban’s coffers. That still leaves billions unaccounted for. (WSJ)

Criminals and Terrorists Beware: You Are Being Watched-Israel INN Staff
(Israelnationalnews.com)
It’s a frequent scene in television crime dramas: Clever police technicians zoom in on a security camera video to read a license plate or capture the face of a hold-up artist. But in real life, enhancing this low-quality video to focus in on important clues hasn’t been an easy task - until now. Tel Aviv University Prof. Leonid Yaroslavsky and his colleagues have developed a new video “perfection tool” to help investigators enhance raw video images and identify suspects. Commissioned by a defense-related company to improve what the naked eye cannot see, the tool can be used with live video or with recordings, in color or black-and-white.
“This enhancement of resolution can be a critical factor in locating terrorists or identifying criminal suspects,” says Prof. Yaroslavsky. His team’s findings were recently published in “Optical Letters” and the “Journal of Real-Time Image Processing. “The new invention enhances the resolution of raw video images from security cameras, military binoculars and standard personal-use video cameras, improving the quality at which the images were originally recorded or transmitted. This can mean the difference between “seeing” trees blowing in the wind and finding a terrorist hiding in those trees. (INN)

Will Missile Defense Budget Be Restored?-Riki Ellison
Seven North Korean ballistic missiles were fired on July 4th from North Korea into the East Sea, the body of water that separates Japan from North Korea. The seven missiles launched were a mixture of Scud-C short-range ballistic missiles and Rodong/Nodong medium-range ballistic missiles with ranges from 350 miles to 800 miles. These North Korean ballistic missiles were liquid fueled, mobile land-based systems and as such their launch pads and locations were not known prior to their launching. Satellite intelligence can only provide post-launch analysis of backtracking the trajectories to the launch locations after the missiles have been fired. The North Korean demonstration of our lack of detection prior to launch provides very difficult challenges for pre-emptive military action to disable or destroy North Korean ballistic missiles prior to launch in possible future scenarios. It is with appreciation that the current Administration understands the future regional threats and has increased $900 million to the 2010 Missile Defense budget. That $900 million for 2010 is allocated for an increase in missile interceptors with the THAAD land-based mobile system as well as the Aegis ship based missile defense system. (Familysecuritymatters)

UN Child Rights Treaty Will Expand Government, Hurt Children-Chris Carter
The Obama administration is renewing efforts to sign a United Nations treaty supposedly aimed at protecting children's rights. Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the UN announced last Monday that the administration is investigating “when and how it might be possible to join” the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).
While a treaty codifying children's rights may sound harmless, the true nature of this treaty is devastating to our family structure, Constitution, national sovereignty and security. New rights granted the child would include the right to “thought, conscience and religion.” Do our children not already enjoy these rights? Our nation is already party to the treaty's two optional protocols: one preventing Child Prostitution and Child Pornography, the other preventing Children in Armed Conflict. Why either of the two is “optional” is disturbing. Our country and our children stand to gain nothing from the passage of this treaty. In fact, the CRC would provide a far more damaging environment for children. So why are politicians like Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) – who pushed for a 60-day timeline for ratification – so anxious to sign? (Familysecuritymatters)

Obama’s Ambitious UN Treaty Agenda-Cliff Kincaid
With Al Franken replacing Norm Coleman, Senate Democrats have another vote for the UN’s Law of the Sea Treaty, and there are strong indications that they intend to bring this controversial document up for a vote within days or weeks. Those who favor the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) believe that U.S. security lies in passing a treaty and hiring more lawyers to defend America before an international tribunal, rather than building more ships for the Navy and Coast Guard. The anticipated vote on the treaty follows a strong recent push for ratification from the Council on Foreign Relations and newspaper ads in favor of the treaty from the Pew Charitable Trusts, a $5 billion non-profit entity. Plus, the Obama State Department sent a document to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on May 11th that declared UNCLOS to be a top priority for the administration. In fact, Obama’s submission to the Foreign Relations Committee names 17 treaties that he wants ratified. In addition to UNCLOS, they include the feminist Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the unverifiable Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, and the gun rights-destroying Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials. (Familysecuritymatters)

Polar bear expert barred by global warmists-Christopher Booker
Mitchell Taylor, who has studied the animals for 30 years, was told his views 'are extremely unhelpful’ , reveals Christopher Booker.
Over the coming days a curiously revealing event will be taking place in Copenhagen. Top of the agenda at a meeting of the Polar Bear Specialist Group (set up under the International Union for the Conservation of Nature/Species Survival Commission) will be the need to produce a suitably scary report on how polar bears are being threatened with extinction by man-made global warming.This is one of a steady drizzle of events planned to stoke up alarm in the run-up to the UN's major conference on climate change in Copenhagen next December. But one of the world's leading experts on polar bears has been told to stay away from this week's meeting, specifically because his views on global warming do not accord with those of the rest of the group. Dr Mitchell Taylor has been researching the status and management of polar bears in Canada and around the Arctic Circle for 30 years, as both an academic and a government employee. More than once since 2006 he has made headlines by insisting that polar bear numbers, far from decreasing, are much higher than they were 30 years ago. Of the 19 different bear populations, almost all are increasing or at optimum levels, only two have for local reasons modestly declined. (Telegraph.co.uk)

SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE

Majority think it is possible to believe in God and Darwin
Most people feel it is possible to believe in God and evolution, according to a survey.
The poll carried out by the British Council found that 54 per cent thought that science and religion are compatible. Only 19 per cent of those questioned said it is impossible to believe in a God while also holding the view that life on earth evolved as a result of natural selection. This is the theory proposed by Charles Darwin exactly 150 years ago in his groundbreaking book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The study, which surveyed the opinions of more than 10,000 people across 10 countries worldwide including Great Britain, also uncovered wide regional variations in the acceptance of evolutionary theory. Londoners were found to be more likely to believe in creationism – the idea that the earth was divinely created in its current form – than people elsewhere in the country. In total 23 per cent of the capital's residents rejected evolution, compared with 16 per cent nationwide.

LOVE, IRANIAN STYLE-James Wood
A new novel pits passion and repression.
Sometimes, the soft literary citizens of liberal democracy long for prohibition. Coming up with anything to write about can be difficult when you are allowed to write about anything. A day in which the most arduous choice has been between “grande” and “tall” does not conduce to literary strenuousness. And what do we know about life? Our grand tour was only through the gently borderless continent of Google. Nothing constrains us. Perhaps we look enviously at those who have the misfortune to live in countries where literature is taken seriously enough to be censored, and writers venerated with imprisonment. What if writing were made a bit more exigent for us? What if we had less of everything? It might make our literary culture more “serious,” certainly more creatively ingenious. Instead of drowning in choice, we would have to be inventive around our thirst. Tyranny is the mother of metaphor, and all that. Among other things, Shahriar Mandanipour’s novel “Censoring an Iranian Love Story” (translated by Sara Khalili; Knopf; $25) is a tough reply to such maundering. Mandanipour, a distinguished Iranian novelist and short-story writer, was prohibited from publishing his fiction in his native country between 1992 and 1997. (Newyorker)